The focus piece in today’s Christian Science Monitor reminds us that “planetary carbon dioxide concentrations are the highest they’ve been in the past 800,000 years.” On the plus side, this piece also points out how much progress has been made since the first Earth Day in 1970, the year Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River caught fire.

Today is the last day to comment

on the KXL Tar Sands Pipeline Project.

Natural Resources Defense Council president Frances Beinecke has a special Earth Day message on the subject. If you are inspired to take action, you can send a comment to President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry here.

Don’t spend all of Earth Day on the computer.

Get outside if you can.

Perhaps it’s is a good day for a picnic…

Or at least for a walk or bike ride…

And for noticing the beauty all around you — the tiny spring flowers, the sweet bird songs, and the lush green colors bursting forth all over…